ProPublica announced on Wednesday that it has hired Alanna McLafferty as a senior product engineer. In this role, McLafferty will help develop new product features and strengthen platform security.
Most recently, McLafferty worked for a stealth mode startup building a peer-to-peer Internet anti-censorship application and a platform for users to manage their accounts and payments. Previously, she worked at KickUp, a K-12 education startup, helping to build their teacher professional learning and growth platform. In 2020, she founded and ran KickUp’s engineering apprenticeship program.
McLafferty holds a bachelor’s degree in computing science from the University of Alberta and, after graduating, helped develop the popular Software Design & Architecture specialization on Coursera for the University of Alberta.
“I couldn’t be more excited to welcome Alanna to the team,” said Ben Werdmuller, incoming Senior Director of Technology. “Alanna brings a rich background in mission-driven work and technical expertise to ProPublica at a time when we’re finalizing our technology plans for 2024 and beyond. We’re already learning from her and I can’t wait to do this work together.”